“I can’t stress enough the Brigadoon quality of Vail,” says Damian Woetzel, artistic director of the Vail Dance Festival, referring to the mythical village that appears in the Scottish Highlands for one day every 100 years. “Artists arrive for a short time and coexist in this creative atmosphere.”
Luckily for dance fans, the Vail festival lasts 10 days and occurs annually. It’s a place where performances amid the wildflowers and pines of Colorado can ignite an even deeper appreciation of the art form. “The natural environment is so conducive to that sense of doing things in a fresh way,” says Woetzel, who also serves as president of the Julliard School and is a former star dancer with New York City Ballet. “I want a place where artists go to do things they don’t do in their everyday life.”
The Vail Dance Festival was established in 1989 as a seasonal residency for the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Woetzel took the reins in 2007 and helped transform it from a reliable showcase into a busy incubator by playing the role of matchmaker between dance artists from disparate styles. In past years he’s paired New York City Ballet star Tiler Peck with the Memphis jookin artist Lil Buck, and Michelle Dorrance, a venerated tap dancer, with Bill Irwin, a venerated clown.
